No toll tax u-turn if government kills national scheme

DEFIANT toll tax chiefs will plough ahead with the controversial scheme - despite claims the government's flagship national road pricing scheme is in tatters. The revelation, made by Manchester Against Road Tolls (MART) claims that Gordon Brown has abandoned plans for a national road pricing scheme amid fever pitched opposition across the country.

The revelation, made by Manchester Against Road Tolls (MART) claims that Gordon Brown has abandoned plans for a national road pricing scheme amid fever pitched opposition across the country.

They are now calling for the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) to withdraw it's bid for £3billion of central Government funding from the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) needed to set up the congestion charge.

During heated wranglings over the decision by eight of the ten AGMA authorities to back the bid in August, toll tax supporters argued that AGMA should grab £3bn of investment put forward by the government before a national road pricing scheme was rolled out across the country.

But with the national scheme now apparently on the back burner, anti-toll tax campaigners claim arguments made by supporters of the congestion charge are now toothless and are demanding that the bid for TIF funding is withdrawn.

"MART have proved that traffic levels are falling, that the scheme wouldn’t work financially and that the majority of Mancunians don’t want it. The head of Manchester City Council, Richard Leese, is rapidly running out of options and must accept the inevitable. He must ditch the Toll Tax before Greater Manchester is left isolated, its economy in ruins and its people the most heavily taxed in the country.”

The Department for Transport rebutted MART'S claims and said there had been no change in policy.

A spokesman said: "We have said all along that we want to see how this works regionally and locally."

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority said any decision at a national level will not affect Manchester's bid for road charging.

Roger Jones, chairman of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, said: "The Department for Transport (Dft) has said that it wants to see road pricing working in regional pilots before it makes any decision about whether there should be a national scheme.

He added that Manchester's bid for £3billion of government funding - which would see thousands of vehicles crossing the M60 charged £5 everyday - has not been affected.

So far, Manchester is the only city to apply for funding from the TIF, money that MART describe as a 'bribe'.